Xenon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has entered into a collaboration with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, for the discovery and validation of new therapeutic targets and mechanisms for treating pain. Xenon will employ its Extreme Genetics discovery platform to explore rare phenotypes associated with an inability to perceive pain or spontaneous severe pain. This new agreement expands upon the companies strategic alliance established in 2012 for the discovery and development of compounds and companion diagnostics for pain.

Both companies will own the intellectual property resulting from the collaboration. Xenon has also granted Genentech a limited, exclusive right to form joint drug discovery collaborations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"With this new collaboration, we have the opportunity to apply our expertise in pain genetics and insights into the biology of pain more broadly, and build on our highly productive strategic alliance with Genentech," said Dr. Simon Pimstone, president and chief executive officer of Xenon. "We believe the pain market is currently underserved and represents a significant commercial opportunity for our company. We look forward to working further with Genentech to seek to discover additional highly validated targets that could yield novel non-opioid based mechanisms to treat pain."